8 March 2022

International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Marked annually on 8 March, International Women's Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to celebrate women's achievements and raise awareness about women's equality.

To celebrate the successes (including the various definitions of this) of female graduates and to show how taking part in the Graduate Outcomes survey provides a voice for all graduates, we’re sharing some survey statistics from the class of 2018/19.

Firstly, we can share that over 480,000 women gained a higher education qualification in 2018/19 – that’s 58% of all UK graduates. Now for some Graduate Outcomes survey results:

• 7% of female graduates are creating their careers by starting their own business or becoming self-employed 15 months after higher education.
• 18% of female graduates carried on their study, training or research 15 months after higher education allowing them to become experts and pursue a subject they love!
• The survey explores subjective definitions of ‘success’ and we know that 76% of female graduates felt fulfilled by their employment activities 15 months after higher education.

We need female graduates to share their views by taking the Graduate Outcomes survey enabling us to demonstrate the state of the graduate labour market for women - 58% of 2018/19 survey respondents were women. This data helps causes like International Women's Day, the Government, researchers and more!

Find out more about the survey and why you should take part. Our FAQs will explain when you can expect to receive your survey invitation if you’re newly graduated or in your final year.

To view more detailed statistics from the class of 2018/19 visit HESA’s website.

Source: HESA CCBY4.0